Organization 5.0 is also a heading to capture the group of companies characterised as:

Such organizations work with complexity in ways such as:

Seeking and coordinating contrasting perspectives in decision making

Ethical and values based reasoning.

Understanding of the self (and developmental journies)

accompanying not just optimum and healthy behaviours (opinion based), but building individuals' skills and capacities in handling complexity (measurable, scientificly based - ref. Lectica)

5.0 is more specifically chosen to convey the notion of stages and directionality, inspired by the developmental stages (of individuals) research heritage from people such as Jean Piaget, Clare Graves, Susanne Cook-Greuter, Jenny Wade, Robert Kegan, Laurence Kohlberg, Bill Torbert, Don Beck (Sprial Dynamics) and Ken Wilber (Integral Theory meta-analysis).

The specific stage of 5.0 correlates to the shift to "2nd Tier" in the language of Spiral Dynamics. A summary of the Developmental Model in terms of an Individual's growth can be found below (credit FormlessMountain.com).

And there are two important "buts"!

Directionality does not translate into an all-winning replacement formula. Every stage (or every archetype) has its role to play, and has its share of strengths and pathologies, including 5.0. Further descriptions on the ever-present nature of all the stages can be found below.

As you'll get used to seeing on this website, there is the dialectical aspect. where Directionality only exists with its opposite of Circularity. Otherwise referred to as "the Circle and the Arrow". Circularity relates to how the stages ebb and flow according to factors such as the environment and life-cycle (individual or collective).

(Image created by Steve Self (FormlessMountain). Based on the work of Ken Wilber, Don Beck and others)

Another corner stone in the theoretical framework of "Organization 5.0" is the Competing Values Framework. This framework segments into four quadrants the qualities of collectives, according to their primary mode of functioning.

:

Taking each Quadrant, the primary operating strength of each can be seen to be:

The above four modes of operating can be considered in their order of a typical organisational or collaborative life-cycle - 1.0 Create > 2.0 Collaborate > 3.0 Optimise > 4.0 Compete, giving rise to the notion of an Organisation 5.0 being one that consciously cultivates, supports and balances each of these modes.

And correlations of the Developmental Stages framework to collectives (by John Oliver):